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Newcastle University International Singapore doing our Final year project on Quadrotor

Posted by Angus Tang on February 9, 2014 at 6:28am

Good day to all members

We are a group of mechanical engineering students from Newcastle University International Singapore doing our Final year project on Quadrotor.

Our project requirements

  • a 3 kg Hybrid Quadrotor
  • the hybrid part is to swap between crash cage of 10 m and terrestrial drive to save 50% of the battery use
  • which is able carry additional 3kg of payload
  • maximum distance between propeller tip is 1 m
  • minimum fight time is 15 min

Do visit us at http://newcastlequadcopter.blogspot.sg/

Right about now we understand that we have to jump start our selection of parts by

1. estimating the overall weight, propeller speed and diameter

2. using power equations from Abbott equation or Bob Boucher's electric motor handbook equation

3. relate it with propeller momentum theory

4. using the propeller coefficients 

5. choosing battery that can give a flight time of 15min

So people the questions will be

a) is there other methods rather than "guessing" the propeller speed and size?

b) are there power equations you all have tried and proven correct or even trying out your own equation?

c) Which of these 2 equation on Momentum Theory about propeller is the correct one? Please explain.

thrust1.gif       (1)

equation-21.png?w=640

                                

Personally I think this project was a bit ambitious given the weight, payload and flight. We did some draft calculation and had tried using the famous xcopterCalc - Multicopter Calculator; it seem like we cannot even get it to fly.

Estimated parts

4 x motor 1.2 kg

2 x battery 1.6 kg

We like to call out to everyone and anyone there who are more experience, interested and kind in this forum to provide us with your ideas and advice.

Thank and Regards

Angus Tang

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Replies

  • solar February 9, 2014 at 8:31am

    As a starting point why don't you look at existing quad copters that can carry the payload you require (3kg) and scale the weight and propeller speed and size to the one you intend to make.

    This is the way that has been recommended to me to find the horsepower of the motor required for a scaled boat.

    • Angus Tang > solar February 10, 2014 at 12:44am

      Thank you for the reply, the commonly available dimension 1m propeller tips to propeller tips Quadcoptor are about at most 2kg. Those with payload of 3kg is Hex or above.

      I had expressed my concern with the lecturer, he said and I quote " if it is easily available then it will not be your FYP". :S

      Regards

      Angus

      • solar > Angus Tang February 10, 2014 at 4:22am

        I see. My final year project is an autonomous boat.

        The way I calculated the approximate motor power needed for the boat was to scale the size and its motor to the size of the boat I would be using .

        My supervisor advised this method, and it worked for me. The way to go about these things is to improve upon an existing product. Don't buy it outright- but amend some of the design. 

        • Angus Tang > solar February 11, 2014 at 3:11am

          Thanks for the reply solar

          Our approach is somewhat similar I think

          1. we are going to make use of propeller data from http://aerospace.illinois.edu/m-selig/props/propDB.html
          2. at static condition to determine the power absorbed by the propeller to create the thrust needed
          3. hence selection of motor

          Totally agree that looking around and amend existing product will helps.

          Thanks and regards

          Angus 

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